runnerette || the maze runner fanfiction **UNDERGOING EDITS**

❥ 1.1

I wake to the earsplitting sound of metal against metal and the sensation of drowning.

I sit up, gasping for air as the room around me rockets skyward, black dots swimming across my eyes. I rock back and forth on my hands and knees until my vision clears, sort of. The room is indeed moving up, and fast. Barrels and crates surround me in what seems to be a kind of metal elevator. Red lights circle the shaft of some kind of elevator, adding to my disorientation. I manage to look up and, despite the speed of the contraption, I see no end in sight, like it could go up forever.

I find quickly find my footing and stand up, but immediately have to kneel back down because I stood up too fast. I spend a couple of seconds cursing myself before I try again. As I slowly stand upright and turn in a circle, I attempt to take in more of my surroundings before the bumpy transportation sending me flying to the opposite side of the box-filled room, crashing over crates and bins of god knows what.

I slide hopelessly down the grate walls, turn, and start banging on it with my fists.

"CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME?" I scream as loud as I can. For a second I'm taken aback by the sound of my voice. It's almost like I didn't know what it sounded like before I just spoke. In fact, I actually don't think I can remember anything about myself; where I came from, who my parents are, or even my name. How could I not know my own name?

With my back against the metal bars, I sit with my head in my hands, trying to remember something, anything, I can about myself. I see figures with blurred faces, names, and voices, but nothing of help or substance. I don't even know how long I've been in this moving prison from hell, or wherever. It may have been a day already, maybe longer. Maybe way shorter, but there was no way of telling.

Without warning, the cage hits the top of... something, and I go toppling over into the middle of the cold floor. An alarm of some kind blares and bright light stares down on me as if someone's ripped the roof open and exposed it to the summer sun. How I can even make that comparison, I'm not exactly sure, but I don't have a lot of time to really think about it. Voices circle above me, all of them sounding male, but you shouldn't really assume those kinds of things. You know what they say about assuming. I quickly shut my eyes, hoping no one saw them open, and pretend to be asleep. Maybe they won't notice me.

Someone opens what I think is the grate at the top of the cage and jumps down into my little room, thumping beside me. I held my breath as I sensed them standing over me.

"It's a girl." I hear someone with a sweet accent say, with obvious surprise in their voice. Murmurs from the other voices fill the room. "I think she's still asleep."

I sense the person kneel next to me, their knees against my thighs. Their thumb gently caresses my left temple. They're whispering to me.

"Are you alright?" They sound genuinely concerned. The other voices cease above us as they hang onto every second of anticipated silence. 

Feeling brave, I let my eyes flutter open to look at the boy kneeling over me. I'm met with a boy who looks older than I am, somewhere around seventeen. His dark eyes widen as they lock on mine.

"Ah. Hello there, love." He breathes. I notice he hasn't stopped caressing my face, and, it's about time, my fight or flight reflex kicks in. 

I fly backward and lean back on my forearms. Not exactly fight or flight, per se, but I'm not exactly sensing any immediate danger. "Hi," I muster, exasperated, "What just happened, and where am I?"

"You'll find out eventually." He stands up and extends his hand. 

His answer actually didn't help me feel better at all, and I don't know what prompts me to cooperate, but I take his outstretched hand anyway and he pulls me to my feet. Other arms reach down and yank us out of the death trap of a vessel that was the box room. Once I'm set onto solid ground, I look around and gasp at where I've just arrived.